Tag Archive "napoleon"

(Sadly, this reporter’s fumble fingers vaporized the 6-minute Live Comments voice recording I made Friday, Oct. 3, 2014. As with the dictates of Murphy’s Law, I had no backup version. So what we have below, folks, is a lemonade of Live Comments — a paraphrased version of what people said to me at the Vox building and Space 1026 last Friday night. P. S. Burned once, I will never again edit from an un-backed up audio file. Look for more (really) Live Comments in the future.) John Phillips: I just saw great John Moore paintings (at Locks Gallery to Nov. 8) ... More » »

[Michael sets sail on a journey through an exhibition paying tribute to a legendary lost artist and sailor, with works made of materials suiting the subject. Catch this show before it closes on Friday! — the artblog editors] Tyler McPhee’s Perfect Lovers at Napoleon Gallery examines the loneliness, longing, and companionship that accompany a sailor at sea. An homage to maritime culture, the six photos, paintings, and sculptural works create a mythological and romanticized biography of an old sea captain. The idea is derived from Bas Jan Ader’s final performance, In Search of the Miraculous. On July 9, 1975, Ader set ... More » »

News A shot Roberta took of the Gee’s Bend Girls at the PMA got a second life recently when Craft in America were captivated enough to use it in an episode, which aired this week, focusing on the topic of industry. The picture in question, showing the Gees Bend quilters singing at the PMA in their quilt exhibit a number of years back, was spotted by a sharp-eyed artist who saw the Gee’s Bend ladies singing at an exhibition and thought it would fit the episode perfectly. Good tidings from former Philadelphia Art Alliance curator Sarah Archer, who’s ... More » »

First Friday started early for Libby and me with a trip to the Perelman Building at the PMA with Collab board president Vesna Todorovicz Sacks, who showed us the Collab 2013 Design Excellence Award show of Australian designer Marc Newson. Not only is the work a delight — playful, colorful, sleek and clean, the design of the show itself is very cool. Like an exploded 3D version of a model home, the show features a garage with a Ford Concept Car, a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and bath–a highly engaging little pad to dream yourself into. The Australian designer, ... More » »

[Leah delves into tropes associated with both the gay and Jewish communities, and examines how a new show challenges expectations. — the artblog editors] When I initially heard about Gay, Jewish, or Both at NAPOLEON, I was very enthusiastic. The subject is a delicate one; however, it is also very contemporary and full of potential for rich discourse. The exhibition is perplexing. On the one hand, I was not sure how I felt, but on the other, I knew that I was being asked to digest some difficult ideas. As a Jew who was raised by a lesbian, I often ... More » »

(Libby and I had a date with the B-roll team from WHYY’s Friday Arts on Jan. 3. Maybe you saw us at the Vox building or Space 1026. You say, What is B-roll? Well, it’s not sushi is my reply. ) Vox building Accompanied by Cate who was visiting from New York, and all mic’d up and ready for our video shoot, we headed up the stairs at 319 N. 11th, with filmmaker/director Michael O’Reilly, audio engineer Charlie Kaier and cameraman Paul Parmalee in tow. First stop, the new TandM Space on the 4th floor. Blaise Tobia and Virginia Maksymowics, who ... More » »

Lewis Colburn is a maker of whimsical sculptural installations that are sometimes life size and sometimes half-scale. The artist loves history and his works often deal with historical periods and ideas at play in those bygone eras. We would have loved to meet and talk with him in his studio in the Viking Mill building in Kensington, but that building was recently closed due to some code violations. Colburn is a CFEVA fellow and a member of the alternative gallery Napoleon. Now until Dec. 6, you can see his work in the Citywide exchange show As First as exactly, a ... More » »

(Sam reviews Lewis Colburn’s recently-closed show at Napoleon gallery, with work that raises issues about the role of the artist in society.) The works of Lewis Colburn defy easy categorization, but they are generally concerned with storytelling and conceptions of history and truth; and Colburn seems to see art as a playful way to stimulate viewers’ imaginations. His latest installation, The Noble Amateur, presses deceptions on the viewer, such as man-made works that mimic natural growth, and hand-made pieces that resemble found objects, but noticing these tricks is part of the fun. The artist recently joined the member gallery, Napoleon, and this month the gallery ... More » »

It was an unusually fertile September First Friday with shows that interested me all over the place. Sadly, you can only do what you can do, and this is what I did and saw. All venues will be open on Saturday and some are open on Sundays. Check the websites for more info and get out there this weekend. Eve Sussman and Simon Lee at Locks Gallery Sussman and Lee sometimes collaborate, and the husband and wife team had a number of collaborative videos they had made in Central Asia. One I loved in particular, which was not in Central ... More » »

A small temple in honor of the late Hector “Macho” Camacho, a Puerto Rican boxer from San Juan who always stayed close to his community, has been erected at Napoleon gallery in Philadelphia. Their latest outing, A Cemi Waste of Macho Time: something for us to believe in is the first installation piece by Philadelphia artist Grimaldi Baez. Not being a fan of boxing, I didn’t know about Camacho until I saw this show. After watching a YouTube video of Camacho winning his first world title in 1983 and hearing the crowd chant Camacho’s name, it became clear to me that ... More » »